The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (260 page)
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Authors: Elizabeth Knowles
1860–87
Ah! que la vie est quotidienne.
Oh, what a day-to-day business life is.
Complainte sur certains ennuis
(1885)
1882–1947
When I make a mistake, it's a beaut!
on the appointment of Herbert O'Brien as a judge in 1936
William Manners
Patience and Fortitude
(1976)
1941–
Criticism is a life without risk.
Light Fantastic
(1996)
Society drives people crazy with lust and calls it advertising.
in
Guardian
2 August 1989
1927–89
The divided self.
title of book (1960) on schizophrenia
Madness need not be all breakdown. It may also be break-through.
The Politics of Experience
(1967) ch. 6
1790–1869
Ô temps! suspend ton vol, et vous, heures propices! Suspendez votre cours.
O Time! arrest your flight, and you, propitious hours, stay your course.
Le Lac
(1820) st. 6
1785–1828
Mad, bad, and dangerous to know.
of Byron, after their first meeting at a ball
diary, March 1812; in Elizabeth Jenkins
Lady Caroline Lamb
(1932)
1775–1834
Presents, I often say, endear Absents.
Essays of Elia
(1823) "A Dissertation upon Roast Pig"
Your
borrowers of books
—those mutilators of collections, spoilers of the symmetry of shelves, and creators of odd volumes.
Essays of Elia
(1823) "The Two Races of Men"
Not many sounds in life…exceed in interest a knock at the door.
Essays of Elia
(1823) "Valentine's Day"
[A pun] is a pistol let off at the ear; not a feather to tickle the intellect.
Last Essays of Elia
(1833) "Popular Fallacies" no. 9
Gone before
To that unknown and silent shore.
"Hester" (1803) st. 7
I have had playmates, I have had companions,
In my days of childhood, in my joyful school-days,—
All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.
"The Old Familiar Faces"
A child's a plaything for an hour.
"Parental Recollections" (1809); often attributed to Lamb's sister Mary
I have something more to do than feel.
on the death of his mother, at his sister Mary's hands
letter to S. T. Coleridge, 27 September 1796
Cultivate simplicity, Coleridge.
letter to S. T. Coleridge, 8 November 1796
This very night I am going to leave off tobacco! Surely there must be some other world in which this unconquerable purpose shall be realized.
letter to Thomas Manning, 26 December 1815
An Archangel a little damaged.
of Coleridge
letter to Wordsworth, 26 April 1816
When my sonnet was rejected, I exclaimed, "Damn the age; I will write for Antiquity!"
letter to B. W. Proctor, 22 January 1829
